


With Or Without You

by Yoite



Category: Prison Break
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Hayfield, M/M, One Shot Collection, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rare Pairings, Rating May Change, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 05:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5815999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoite/pseuds/Yoite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This will be an ongoing collection of drabbles / one shots for my new favourite pairing Michael Scofield/Haywire. Hayfield deserve so much more love. See individual chapters for summaries / warnings. </p><p>Most of the stories will be set around S2, and I'm assuming that the events described in my Hayfield "origins" story "Aide-Memoire" took place in S1, so I recommend to read that story first ;). </p><p>For the lovely wolfmetal, thank you for supporting me in my obsession with this obscure pairing <3</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Or Without You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Randomsmeg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Randomsmeg/gifts).



> This first story assumes an alternative S2 timeline where Haywire now travels with Michael and Lincoln. Naturally, Lincoln is not too happy about that. Why the hell is Michael keeping this lunatic around?
> 
> (No big spoilers or smut in this chapter.)

“I just don’t get it, why’re we still dragging him along?”

Lincoln pointed and Michael followed the gesture, casting a gloomy look back at the car. For a moment or two, they were both busy mustering Haywire in the backseat. The lunatic was bent over their map, manically scribbling something into the margins.

“I mean, I do get why _he_ wants to be here, the way he looks at you, like you’re God’s gift to the world.. but _you_?”

The engineer rolled his eyes at that.

“You were hellbent on getting him out of your cell, and now you seem to _want_ him around?”

“Yes, I needed him gone, because he was getting in our way back in Gen Pop”, Michael sighed his usual let-me-explain-this-to-your-inferior-brain type of sigh, “but now he is _helping_. He is _useful_.”

He nodded at the car, slightly shifting on the spot. Lincoln gave a sigh of his own. It was true, in a way. The route they were planning to take had been blocked off – thank God, C-Note had been able to warn them – so Haywire was calculating the alternative that was least likely to cause them any issues, based on about a dozen different factors. Lincoln couldn’t really tell what they all were, his brother had given the freak rather detailed instructions, but he’d switched off at the word ‘algorithm’. Haywire seemed to have understood Michael perfectly, though, which amazed Lincoln, since earlier that morning he’d briefly struggled to understand how to lace up his shoes.

“Yeah, _now_ he’s helping”, the older man grumbled, unconvinced, “and an hour ago, in the café, we had to run because the man in the mirror told him to unscrew the hot water tap. Remember? We’re already locking him up at night, now we gotta supervise him on the john as well?”

Michael shrugged and said nothing, which was unusual. The engineer was one of those exasperating people who always had a good response handy, even if only a sharp and aphoristic one at times.

“I mean, alright, he’s useful at a few _very specific_ tasks”, Lincoln conceded grudgingly, “but whatever he can do, you can do just as well, no?”

Michael shook his head, eyes still glued to Haywire’s profile in the car window.

“You’re the smartest guy I know!”

“No, I’m not.”

The engineer wanted to add that, coming from Lincoln, it really wasn’t saying all that much, but held back.

“He has perfect eidetic memory. I can’t do what he does.”

The older man lifted a weary eyebrow. Here was another thing that struck him as abnormal, Michael being openly complimentary about another person’s mental capacities. Especially _this_ person’s mental capacities.

“And _if_ he’s a bloody genius, he’s got pretty strange ways of showing it, don’t you think?”

Lincoln was beginning to wonder if the brief stint in the psych ward had left some traces on his little brother after all.

“He’s putting us both in danger.” He pointed again, more accusingly this time. “I never thought I’d say those words, Michael, but you’re not being _rational_ about him! The guy’s barking mad!”

“How would _you_ know what’s rational”, the engineer muttered under his breath. Lincoln ignored it. Growing up with Michael, he’d developed a pretty thick skin for that kind of snark.

“Because the rational thing would be to send him on his merry way, like we did with all the others. Let’s just give him a bunch of money, and -"

“He’ll probably eat it.”

“Well, how in the ever-loving hell is that even our -"

Lincoln stopped himself just short of pointing out that he really couldn’t care any less whether Haywire ate the money, spent it on whatever random item his heart desired, or drew all over it, like he tended to proceed with any little piece of paper. But, of course, his little brother wouldn’t think like that, he just liked _saving_ people. He’d always been this way.

“Look, Michael”, he tried a different route, as gently as he could. Which didn’t turn out too gentle after all. “Fine, I get it. You think he’s interesting or something. But we don’t have time for your little research project. Every policeman and their dog is chasing us, and I mean,  _literally_. We can’t be babysitting this psycho. The man needs his meds, and maybe a couple of electroshocks for good m-“

“No, you _don’t_ get it, Linc!” The engineer suddenly burst out, hands curled into fists. “You haven’t even  _seen_ him on meds! It’s like he’s not even a _person_!”

Instinctively, Lincoln took a half-step back, away from those sparkling blue eyes shooting lightning bolts at him. He watched Michael take a deep breath and run a hand through his cropped hair, once, twice, finally looking back at the car. Haywire must have heard him shout as he was staring over at them, briefly distracted from his task. Or, to be precise, he was staring at Michael. He only ever looked at Michael, like Lincoln wasn’t even _there_. It was incredibly annoying. Michael was strangely protective of this bug-eyed weirdo, yet whenever he was was actually talking _to_ him he was pointedly cool and abrupt, which, given Haywire’s obvious eagerness to please him, gave their brief conversations a certain comical value. But Lincoln was hardly in the mood for that kind of entertainment. He didn’t want to mention what he was about to say, he had promised himself not to bring it up, but Michael left him no choice.

“Well then, _explain_ it to me”, he barked at the back of the engineer’s head, “maybe, you can start by telling me why you crept over to his room at two o'clock last night? You think I didn’t notice you sneaking out? Wasn’t the first time either. What d’you have to talk to him about in the middle of the goddamn night that I can’t be a part of?”

As different as they both were, Lincoln knew his brother well enough to tell that he’d caught him out. Michael froze and responded just a tiny bit too hastily, just a moment before his brain could come up with a convincing lie.

“Nothing important.”

“You were talking for an hour and a half and it was _nothing important_?”

Michael exhaled, closing his eyes. Thankfully, Lincoln lacked the imagination to even _guess_ how little talking there had been between him and Haywire last night.

“Are you keeping tabs on me, Linc?”

He was back in control, his voice so cold it stung.

“Can’t exactly help it if you wake me”, Lincoln shivered and rolled his shoulders, feeling a little guilty. “Try spending a couple of months on the death row and see if you can ever sleep like a baby again. I just wanna know what’s going on, s’all. And why’s he calling you ‘Mikey’? Nobody ever called you that, apart from mum, when you were, like, _five_ , not even -”

Michael turned to face him again and came close, very close, cutting him off with just his eyes alone. He wasn’t quite as impressively built as Lincoln, but he just had this way about him sometimes, a kind of calm, cool menace that could scare the shit out of the older brother. Even as a scrawny kid, Michael could do that to people. That was probably the reason why he’d not been bullied all that badly in school, despite being different, despite not connecting with others, just standing there in the middle of the schoolyard during break time, scanning his surroundings, observing. Lincoln wished that the one person he’d actually chosen to connect to for once weren’t a loony bin escapee.

“You listen to me now. You’d still be on the death row if it weren't for me. And  _him_ , too. I've never let you down. You said you trust me, so you’ll just have to keep trusting me some more. And Haywire stays as long as I deem necessary. We won’t talk about this again.”

And with that, the engineer walked off, back to the car. Lincoln turned around and stomped away in the other direction, just to cool down. He was furious, and yet there was little he could do. His baby brother was the most stubborn guy on earth.

* * *

Michael opened the door and let himself drop into the front seat. Instantly, Haywire was there, leaning forward from behind him and carefully placing the map in the engineer’s lap. It had formulas written all over its edges. There was a path of ink winding across it.

“That’s the way”, the mathematician stretched out a hand, indicating, but all Michael could focus on right now was Haywire touching his leg through the thin sheet of paper and the soft fabric of his suit trousers. “Is it alright, Mikey? Are we going now?”

Michael looked down at the map, but he didn’t see it, too distracted by Haywire’s warm breath on his neck. Lincoln was right, of course. It was irrational. It was stupid. It was the most illogical thing to ever happen to his life.

“I told you not to call me that”, he said, bringing a hand up to his mouth and hiding the smile even from himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, reviews are always very welcome :)


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